Pioneer 10 was launched on 2 March 1972, on top of an
Atlas/Centaur/TE364-4 launch vehicle. The
launch marked the first use of the Atlas-Centaur as a
three-stage launch vehicle. The third stage was required to
rocket Pioneer 10 to the speed of 51,810 kph
needed for the flight to Jupiter. This made Pioneer
the fastest manmade object to leave the Earth, fast enough to
pass the Moon in 11 hours and to cross the Mars orbit, about 80
million kilometers away, in just 12 weeks.

On 15 July 1972, Pioneer entered the Asteroid Belt, a doughnut
shaped area which measures some 280 million kilometers wide and
80 million kilometers thick. The material in the belts travels
at speed about 20 km/sec and ranges in size from dust particles
to rock chunks as big as Alaska.

After safely traversing the Asteroid Belt, Pioneer 10 headed
toward Jupiter. Accelerated by the massive giant to a speed of
132,000 kph, Pioneer 10 passed by Jupiter within
130,354 kilometers of the cloudtops on December 3, 1973.
During the passage by Jupiter, Pioneer 10 obtained the first
close-up images of the planet, charted Jupiter's intense
radiation belts, located the planet's magnetic field, and
discovered that Jupiter is predominantly a liquid planet.

Following its encounter with Jupiter, Pioneer 10 is exploring the
outer regions of our Solar System, studying energetic particles
from our Sun. (solar wind), and cosmic rays
entering our portion of the Milky Way. As of February 1996, Pioneer 10 was at a
distance of 9.5 billion kilometers from Earth. At that
distance, it takes over 8.5 hours for the radio signal (which is
traveling at the speed of light) to reach Earth.

Pioneer 11 was launched on 5 April 1973, like Pioneer 10, on top
of an Atlas/Centaur/TE364-4 launch vehicle. After safe passage
through the asteroid belt on 19 April 1974, the Pioneer 11
thrusters were fired to add another 63.7 m/sec to
the spacecraft's velocity. This adjusted the aiming point at
Jupiter to 43,000 kilometers above the cloudtops. The
close approach also allowed the spacecraft to be accelerated by
Jupiter to a velocity 55 times that of the muzzle velocity of a
high speed rifle bullet-173,000 kph-so that
it would be carried across the Solar System some 2.4 billion
kilometers to Saturn.

During its flyby of Jupiter on 2 December 1974, Pioneer 11
obtained dramatic images of the Great Red Spot, made the first
observation of the immense polar regions, and determined the
mass of Jupiter's moon, Callisto.

Looping high above the ecliptic plane and across the Solar
System, Pioneer 11 raced toward its appointment with
Saturn on 1
September 1979. Pioneer 11 flew to within 21,000 kilometers of Saturn
and took the first close-up pictures of the planet. Instruments
located two previously undiscovered small moons and an
additional ring, charted Saturn's magnetosphere and magnetic
field and found its planet-size moon, Titan, to be too cold for
life. Hurtling underneath the ring plane, Pioneer 11 sent back
amazing pictures of Saturn's rings. The rings, which normally
seem bright when observed from Earth, appeared dark in the
Pioneer pictures, and the dark gaps in the rings seen from Earth
appeared as bright rings.

Following its encounter with Saturn, Pioneer 11 explored the
outer regions of our Solar System, studying energetic particles
from our Sun (solar wind), and cosmic rays entering our portion
of the Milky Way. In September 1995, Pioneer 11 was at a
distance of 6.5 billion kilometers from Earth. At that
distance, it takes over 6 hours for the radio signal (which is
traveling at the speed of light) to reach Earth.

By September 1995, its power source nearly exhausted, Pioneer 11
could no longer make any scientific observations, and routine
mission operations were terminated. There have been no
communications with Pioneer 11 since November 1995. The Earth's
motion has carried it out of the view of the spacecraft antenna.
The spacecraft cannot be maneuvered to point back at the Earth
because of the lack of power. It is not known whether the
spacecraft is still transmitting a signal. No further tracks of
Pioneer 11 are scheduled.

Description of the Spacecraft

Measured from its farthest ends, from the horn of the
medium-gain antenna to the tip of the omnidirectional antenna,
the Pioneer spacecraft is 2.9 meters long. Its
widest cross-wise dimension, exclusive of the booms, is the
2.7-meter diameter high gain antenna. Pioneer weighs
270 kilograms. The spacecraft is spin-stabilized,
spinning about the axis of the high gain dish antenna at
approximately 5 rpm. Six Hydrazine thrusters provide velocity,
attitude and spin-rate control.

Electrical power is provided by four radioisotope thermoelectric
generators (RTG), each providing 40 watts of power at launch.
Two three-rod trusses, 120 degrees apart, project from the
equipment compartment to deploy the RTG power sources about 10
feet from the center of the spacecraft. A third boom, 120
degrees from the others, projects from the experiments
compartment and positions the helium vector magnetometer sensor
20 feet from the spacecraft center.

Pioneer 10 carries 11 instruments, only 5 of which are still in use.
Pioneer 11 carries 12 instruments, only 3 of which were still in use
when communications ended in late 1995.

As the first
two spacecraft to leave our solar system, Pioneer 10 & 11 carry
a graphic message in the form of a 6- by 9-inch gold anodized plaque
bolted to the spacecraft's main frame.

The Atlas vehicle has a total thrust of 186,979 kilograms, consisting
of two 79,473-kilogram-thrust booster engines;
one 27,416-kilogram thrust sustainer engine, and two vernier
engines, each developing 307 kilograms thrust. Propellants are
liquid oxygen and RP1.

The Centaur second stage has two engines having a total thrust of
13,273 kilograms. This engine carries insulation panels which are
jettisoned just before the vehicle leaves the Earth's atmosphere
and are used to prevent heat or air friction from causing
boil-off of liquid hydrogen during flight through the
atmosphere. Propellant is liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen.

The solid-fueled TE364-4 third stage develops approximately
6,820 kilograms of thrust. This stage also spins the spacecraft up
to 60 rpm.

Scientific Instruments

The following is a list of scientific instruments on board the
Pioneer 10 & 11 spacecraft. Some instruments are no longer used,
either because they have failed (F), or because they were only
used during Jupiter or Saturn encounter (ENC). As the available
spacecraft power is continuing to decline, other instruments can
no longer be used because of power limitations (P/L).

Pioneer 10 Instruments

Helium Vector Magnetometer (F)

Plasma Analyzer (P/L)

Charged Particle Instrument

Cosmic Ray Telescope

Geiger Tube Telescope

Trapped Radiation Detector (P/L)

Meteoroid Detector (ENC)(F)

Asteroid-Meteoroid Experiment (ENC)(F)

Ultraviolet Photometer

Imaging Photopolarimeter (ENC) (P/L)

Infrared Radiometer (F)

The Pioneer 11 instruments are the same as the
Pioneer 10 instruments, except that a Flux-Gate Magnetometer was
added. Instruments on the spacecraft were gradually turned off as power
levels declined. The spacecraft is no longer in communication with Earth.

Pioneer Plaque

On the plaque a man and woman stand before an outline of the
spacecraft. The man's hand is raised in a gesture of good will.
The physical makeup of the man and woman were determined from
results of a computerized analysis of the average person in our
civilization.

The key to translating the plaque lies in
understanding the breakdown of the most common element in the
universe - hydrogen. This element is illustrated in the
left-hand corner of the plaque in schematic form showing the
hyperfine transition of neutral atomic hydrogen. Anyone from a
scientifically educated civilization having enough knowledge of
hydrogen would be able to translate the message. The plaque was
designed by Dr. Carl Sagan of Cornell University and drawn by
his wife, Linda Salzman Sagan.

Mission Management

The Pioneers are managed by the Ames Research Center, Mountain
View, Calif., for NASA's Office of Space Science. The spacecraft
were built by TRW Space & Technology Group, Redondo Beach, Calif.
under contract with NASA, Ames Research Center.